Bank Productivity

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Finally, let me address how the "binary science" tactic figures into this. It doesn't.

I suspect that this is only true to first order. After all, you can manage your commerce distribution so that the yield goes with the multipliers.

The exception is Organized Religion, which applies only to constructing the bank, and lowers the breakpoint to 200 / 1.25 = 160 gold.

Likewise, only to first order. OR applies only to base hammers, so this formula only works if there are no other hammer multipliers in play. The expression you want is 200 * ( general-hammer-multiplier / building-hammer-multiplier). So if you have a Forge and OR in play, the math is 200 * ( 1.25 / 1.50 ) = 166.

[T-hawk]

I suspect that this is only true to first order. After all, you can manage your commerce distribution so that the yield goes with the multipliers.

Only in one direction. Commerce-to-beaker conversion can be displaced into the future, by saving gold now and using it to pay future expenses on deficit research. Commerce-to-gold conversion can't be, because the game doesn't allow a negative treasury. I mention this although not quantitatively in my last paragraph.

Likewise, only to first order. OR applies only to base hammers, so this formula only works if there are no other hammer multipliers in play. The expression you want is 200 * ( general-hammer-multiplier / building-hammer-multiplier). So if you have a Forge and OR in play, the math is 200 * ( 1.25 / 1.50 ) = 166.

Ya know, I know this, and wrote it down with that expression, and somehow lost the sentence in editing and revising. Thanks for the catch.

[Olodune]

Delving into this a bit deeper: No mature empire, with all courthouses and cash multipliers built (and barring corporate expenses), will ever have a science slider below 75%. That number actually matches my experience pretty closely. In the recession phase, you cannot expand beyond the point where 100% of your commerce goes to expenses (equivalent to 100% cash slider.) Courthouses reduce that to 50% commerce-to-expenses, and bank/market/grocer then let you run only 25% slider-to-cash by doubling that cash.

(That's not strictly true, you can expand beyond 100% cash slider by paying expenses with alternative cash like pillaging and tech sales. But it's generally true as a concept.)

So, how to fix this? Raise expenses not just with city count and population, but also with the infrastructure maturity level of the city or civilization. In other words, charge maintenance expenses for buildings. Or exactly the way it worked from Civilization 1 all the way through SMAC and Civilization 3.

First of all --- what a nice article. I do have a couple of comments though, especially on the 75% rule

Expanding beyond 100% commerce to gold is actually quite easy using an early currency -> build wealth strategy. In adventure 38 I used this during the expansion phase, topping out at an expense to commerce ratio of ~1.2

Military support payments can also add plenty to the expenses ledger around the time banking gets completed, especially in Pacifism.

Finally, the player can buy resources from the AI using GPT (at a horrendous rate -- but it can be useful to pick up a strategic resource from time to time).

None of these seem to matter much late game and would probably only change the build order of Banks/Universities when Oxford has already been enabled.